Bill Podmore
Edgar William Podmore (15th August, 1931 - 22nd January, 1994) was a director of 22 episodes of Coronation Street in the 1960s and 1970s who went on to have three spells as the programme's producer between 1976 and 1977, then from 1977 to 1982, and again between 1987 - 1988. He also served as the Street's executive producer from 1982 to 1987, and is largely considered to be the man responsible for the show's "Golden Age" in the 1970s and 1980s. Bill maintained a consistent element of comedy during his stints as producer, which enabled characters such as Stan Ogden, Hilda Ogden and Eddie Yeats to become popular and well-loved by longtime fans to this day. However, some of the cast nicknamed him "The Godfather" because of his occasional ruthlessness when it came to killing off characters such as Ernie Bishop and Renee Roberts. He also became somewhat unpopular with his co-workers for terminating the contract of Peter Adamson (Len Fairclough) after Peter had sold his story of his 1982 arrest for child molestation to a tabloid newspaper. However, Podmore stood by Peter Dudley (Bert Tilsley) when Dudley was charged with importuning twice in the 1980s. Dudley claimed that the second time he was charged, he was set up by police, and Podmore wrote Bert out (with the intention of bringing him back in) when Bert had a retrial in 1983 after the jury failed to reach a verdict on the second count. Unfortunately, Dudley passed away after suffering two heart attacks and a stroke. Bill was born in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire and joined the BBC in December 1954 working at their Lime Grove studios in West London, with Sooty being the first show he worked on. One of his next credits was the first series of Dixon of Dock Green in 1955 but his first job as a cameraman was on Eric Robinson's Music for You. Soon afterwards he moved to ATV in their Birmingham studios and then joined Granada Television in September 1957 as a senior cameraman based in their London Chelsea studio, on one occasion working as a cameraman in the Manchester Quay Street studios on Coronation Street in 1961, confessing that he and his colleagues hadn't seen the programme up to that point as they had been working on other productions. He moved to permanently to Manchester in 1965 and became a director in 1967, and then a producer on Nearest and Dearest in 1970. Bill retired in 1988, and published his memoirs in 1990. Episodes directed by Bill Podmore 1960s 1967 (4 episodes) *Episode 727 (4th December 1967) *Episode 728 (6th December 1967) *Episode 733 (25th December 1967) *Episode 734 (27th December 1967) 1968 (12 episodes) *Episode 739 (15th January 1968) *Episode 740 (17th January 1968) *Episode 745 (5th February 1968) *Episode 746 (7th February 1968) *Episode 757 (18th March 1968) *Episode 758 (20th March 1968) *Episode 763 (8th April 1968) *Episode 764 (10th April 1968) *Episode 771 (6th May 1968) *Episode 772 (8th May 1968) *Episode 777 (27th May 1968) *Episode 778 (29th May 1968) 1970s 1970 (4 episodes) *Episode 993 (29th July 1970) *Episode 994 (3rd August 1970) *Episode 1002 (26th August 1970) *Episode 1003 (31st August 1970) 1975 (2 episodes) *Episode 1490 (30th April 1975) *Episode 1491 (5th May 1975) Category:Coronation Street producers Category:Coronation Street directors Category:Coronation Street executive producers Category:Featured Articles